


The Warning

by prepare4trouble



Category: Big Wolf on Campus
Genre: M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-11-28
Updated: 2002-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-31 15:39:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prepare4trouble/pseuds/prepare4trouble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The death of Pleasentville's latest monster creates problems for Tommy and Merton and leaves the future uncertain in more ways than one. Some mild slash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

One final, hefty push toppled the latest evil creature to terrorize the peace of Pleasentville and it seemed to disintegrate into a thousand pieces before disappearing. Merton was jumping up and down in excitement while Tommy and Lori just stood there with satisfied smiles on their faces. The town and their lives were safe again.

Suddenly, with no warning a huge bolt of energy shot out of the ground where the creature had fallen. His wolf senses taking over, Tommy dived forward and pushed his friends out of harm's way. As he did, the energy made contact with the back of his head, leaving him collapsed in a heap on the floor, on top of Merton and Lori.

Merton spoke first, rolling out from under the collapsed werewolf. "Thanks Tommy, that was close. I forgot to warn you about that little side effect of killing Gorath monster." There was no response. Merton looked at his friend lying on the floor and a now familiar feeling of panic gripped his stomach, "Tommy?" He knelt down and touched his neck, breathing a huge sigh of relief when he discovered his best friend was breathing.

"Is he alright?" asked Lori.

Merton nodded, "I think so, we should get him back to the lair though."

They took an arm each and began to carry Tommy slowly through the empty streets; freezing each time they heard a sound. The last thing either of them needed was to be caught dragging an unconscious werewolf through the streets of Pleasentville. It probably wouldn't be the best news for Tommy either, the town had gone even more werewolf crazy than usual recently after T'n'T had another run in with Tommy. It was lucky their final showdown with the Gorath had been so late at night.

When they finally got back to the lair, Merton and Lori placed the still unconscious Tommy on Merton's bed. "I don't like this, Merton, what was it that hit him?" Lori asked.

Merton frowned, "It's some kind on energy discharge caused by the death of a Gorath. It used to be called its 'last revenge', but I didn't even know it was real. According to the stories, normally it just hurts like hell, I've never heard of anyone being knocked unconscious by it. Definitely not for this amount of time." He was already surrounded by books and expertly flicking though the pages looking for more information.

"Well we can't just leave him there, if he doesn't wake up soon he needs to go to the hospital."

Merton stared at her with the best look of contempt he could muster, "He's still wolfed out, do you really think a building full of medical professionals would be the best place for him right now?"

"We can't just leave him lying on your bed forever!"

Merton tuned out her protests for the time being and tried to concentrate on reading everything he could about the Gorath. He had read it all earlier that day when he tried to find out how to kill it and he could practically quote everything by heart, but re-reading it to see whether he missed anything made him feel like he was doing something. Unlike Lori, who was by now pacing up and down the lair glancing in Tommy's direction every few seconds. "Want to help me read these?" Merton asked.

Lori shook her head then hesitated, "Why not?" she said eventually and headed over to Merton's desk. As she did, a groaning emerged from the other side of the room and they both turned to see a de-wolfed Tommy rubbing his head and starting to sit up.

"Tommy!" Merton was at his side in less than a second, "How do you feel? I'm sorry I didn't warn you about that energy bolt, it's really rare and it's not supposed to knock you out."

Tommy blinked in confusion and looked around as the room and its two other occupants came into focus, "What energy?" he asked, "And who are you two?"


	2. Chapter 2

Merton and Lori exchanged a glance then looked back at Tommy, "What do you mean 'who are we'?" Merton asked, "Tommy, we're your best friends. Merton and Lori?" He was met by a blank look. "We help you fight evil? I find out what it is, you any Lori kick it back to Hades?"

"Whatever you say," said Tommy, getting up and heading towards the door.

"Lori, do something!" pleaded Merton

Lori held out an arm in front of Tommy, baring his way. "Wait Tommy, there's something wrong with your memory, you can't just wander off."

"My memory's fine!" Tommy was getting irritated, "I haven't forgotten you, I just never knew you in the first place."

"So you haven't forgotten everything, just us? That's a little insulting." Merton walked over to the door and stood in front of it. Tommy would have to shove him out of the way if he wanted to leave. Even if he had forgotten him, Merton couldn't believe that Tommy would ever do that. "Do you know your name? Your address? The date?"

Tommy answered all three questions without hesitation, getting two of them right but insisting that the date was almost a year earlier.

"That would explain why he doesn't know who we are," said Merton, "he didn't know either of us this time last year."

"So he's forgotten a whole year of his life? That's crazy! What can we do to get it back?" Lori had by now moved to the side of Merton, making it doubly difficult for Tommy to escape.

Tommy had by now taken a step backwards and was looking at his future friends with a mixture of confusion and panic, unsure whether to believe them or not. If they were lying they were good actors, but he definitely wouldn't put it past some of the guys on the football team to be playing a trick on him. He wasn't sure whether any of them were smart enough to come up with one like this though, or why they would want to.

"Tommy, think hard. What's the last thing you remember?" Merton was speaking slowly and clearly, punctuating his words with hand movements to make sure he was understood.

"I was at football practice, I think I got hit in the head. I'm not sure of anything after that."

"I've got a more important question." Said Lori. Tommy and Merton looked at her inquiringly, "Do you remember who the Pleasentville werewolf is?"

"No, what is it? Some kind of mascot?"

"I think you need to be sitting down for this." Merton placed a hand on each of Tommy's shoulders and pushed him backwards away from the door then down into a chair. Tommy gave a look of surprise but didn't bother to fight, deciding it would be better to find out what was happening before he decided whether these people were insane or he was.

"Okay," said Merton, "Over the past year a lot has changed, we're seniors now, you're the captain of the football team, Lori moved to Pleasentville High from Pleasentville Catholic, and you were bitten by a werewolf."

"What!" Tommy shook his head and made to get up again, he didn't need to listen to any of this.

"Not so fast, Tommy." Merton was holding him down by the shoulders and shaking his head, "You need to know this."

"This is insane," growled Tommy as Merton and Lori realized his eyes were beginning to glow, "I do recognize you," he pointed an accusing finger at Merton, "you're that weird kid from school with the coffin backpack and no friends. There's no wonder, if this is what you do with your free time. I'm going." He pulled Merton's hands off his shoulders and headed for the door.

Merton and Lori exchanged a frantic look, knowing Tommy was close to wolfing out. Lori dived in front of the door again, taking a chance that Tommy wouldn't want to hurt a girl, and Merton grabbed a mirror and held it in front of his friend's face as Lori kicked Tommy in the shin as hard as she could.

A howl of pain and confusion gave way to a cry of pure terror as Tommy saw his reflection in the mirror change from the one he recognized to the face of the Pleasentville werewolf. "What have you done to me?" he asked, his voice became little more than a whisper and he took an unsteady step backwards and sat back down, his legs unable to support his weight.

"We didn't do anything, you're a werewolf. You have been since the beginning of the year when you were bitten when you went camping." Tommy was shaking his head.

"It's all right," Lori promised, "You're a good werewolf, it's just the rest of the town don't know that. That's why we couldn't let you go before you knew."

Tommy's head was still shaking from side to side as he tried to convince himself he hadn't just seen what he knew he had, "So its all true? Everything you said? This is a year in the future?"

"Not exactly," Merton explained, "I think you've somehow lost your memory of the last year, so to you it's the future, while to the rest of the world you're just suffering from amnesia. I'm going to look into it but don't worry, I'm fairly sure your memory will come back, amnesia is rarely permanent unless it's caused by some sort of brain damage."

"Brain damage?" Lori almost yelled

"Which I'm sure it isn't." Merton promised. "He'll be fine. I guess you can go home now if you want, Tommy. As soon as you de-wolf anyway."

"I'm not sure I do want anymore, do my family know about any of this?"

"No and you _can't_ tell them."

Tommy nodded, "Right, that makes sense, it'd probably be all over the news the next day." He picked up the mirror that Merton had put down on his desk and stared at it in disbelief. "How do I change back to normal?" he asked.

After Merton and Lori managed to help Tommy de-wolf, he went home, eager to see something familiar. Part of him had been tempted to stay where he was and hide from the world, but he didn't want to hide. The captain of the football team couldn't spend his time hanging out in some Goth kid's basement because he was embarrassed to be seen. Plus Merton seemed to think that going home might help his memory return. Tommy didn't think so, as far as he knew there was no memory to recover, he had been playing football and been hit on the head. There were no evil monsters or bolts of energy involved, it was almost as if he had been pushed forwards into the body of his future self, a bit like a reverse version of Quantum Leap, or maybe into another dimension like in Sliders. He shook his head, he had been spending way too much time talking to Dean, but whatever it was, it wasn't amnesia, he was sure of that.

Tommy half smiled to himself as he opened his bedroom door and saw that his room was exactly as he remembered it. Not bothering to get changed or pull back the covers, he lay fully clothed on top of his bed, scowled at a photograph sitting on his desk showing him with Merton and Lori, then fell almost instantly asleep, hoping that the world would make sense again in the morning.


	3. Chapter 3

Neither Merton nor Lori slept well that night, after Tommy left they stayed for hours, Merton trying futilely to find out the cause of Tommy's amnesia and a cure for it, Lori pacing up and down the lair, unable to sit still long enough to help. It seemed an impossible task, Merton could find nothing useful and Lori was distracting him. When she eventually left Merton was still as stumped as before, and left alone with his thoughts all he could do was think about his life before he met Tommy and worry that if he didn't get better he might find himself with no friends again. True, Tommy had needed him when he first became a werewolf and it was possible he would need him again now he had forgotten everything he needed to know, but he had found out what he was differently this time. Merton didn't know whether Tommy would ever have considered him a friend if the first time they met he had refused to let him leave the lair then got someone to kick him in the shin and turn him into a werewolf. In fact he was fairly sure he wouldn't.

Not for the first time, Merton fell asleep without even getting close to his bed. His head rested on the book he had been reading and he woke up several times in discomfort but didn't have the energy to move.

The first thing Tommy noticed when he woke up the next morning was that he didn't remember going to bed, the second thing was that he hadn't actually gone to bed, he'd just flopped on top of it, and the third thing he noticed was that when he stood up his leg hurt. Rolling up his trouser leg he winced at the sight of a large purple bruise. He didn't remember hurting his leg in the fight last night, but strangely enough he didn't remember anything after they defeated the Gorath. He prodded the bruise experimentally then wished he hadn't. A glance at the clock told him he had overslept by over half an hour, so he rushed into the bathroom, broke the world clothes changing record, grabbed some breakfast and ran out of the door, managing to make it through the school door a full five minutes before his first class.

"Merton, what happened last night?"

Merton almost dropped the books he was pulling out of his locker when he heard Tommy's voice. "You remember me?" he asked hopefully.

Tommy stared at him for a second, trying to work out whether he'd missed out on some joke, "Of course I remember you, why wouldn't I? What I don't remember is anything that happened last night after I fought that monster."

Merton sighed a huge sigh of relief and fought back the urge to embarrass his friend with a huge hug, "I was so worried about you, we both were." He told him and explained what had happened the previous night as they walked to class.

"I really didn't know who you were? That's really weird." Tommy's face wore a worried look, he didn't like the idea of not remembering something, it had bothered him enough that he couldn't remember a few hours on one night, the idea of forgetting a whole year was disturbing to say the least.

Merton hesitated, "Actually you did say you recognized me eventually, then you insulted me. It was just before Lori kicked you to make you wolf out."

"Oh, sorry about that. So that's what happened to my leg, I've got a really painful bruise there. She must kick harder than you."

"Yeah, well she is a _kick boxer_ , and it's a good thing too or I'd have been even more insulted at your implication that I can't kick as hard as a girl."

Tommy shrugged and sat down, pretending to listen to the teacher while he tried to imagine himself the night before. All he could do was think about how freaked out he felt when he first became a werewolf then multiply it by two or three. He had known something was happening to him before he changed completely, he couldn't imagine what it would have been like to be confronted by two strangers telling him something so unbelievable and then have it proved to him like that. Yet apparently that was what had happened to him only a few hours earlier.

Apart from when he was preparing for some Gothic Fantasy Guild function and needed to be noticed, Merton generally didn't like to attract too much attention when he was at school. Drawing attention to himself meant being noticed by the wrong people, namely Tim and Travis, who caused him enough trouble as it was. Before he became friends with Tommy and then Lori it wasn't unusual for him to go for days without speaking to anyone. He preferred to go unnoticed by most of the students unless there was a good reason. His idea of a good reason didn't normally include the fact that he was eating his lunch.

Tommy was heading over to Merton's empty table with a tray full of chicken, Merton was facing the wrong way to notice him until he heard the crash. He, along with the rest of the student body turned to see what had happened and saw to their amazement that Tommy Dawkins was standing in the middle of the room, chicken all over the floor, staring directly at Merton.

Before Merton had the chance to say or do anything, Tommy rushed towards him, seemingly oblivious to anyone else in the room. "This isn't possible, how can you be just be here, eating?" he asked before throwing his arms around the smaller boy and squeezing tightly, planting a kiss on his forehead.

Merton's eyes widened in panic and he struggled free of Tommy's iron grip and dragged him out of the cafeteria. "What are you doing? I can't believe I didn't hug you earlier because I thought you'd be embarrassed!"

"I thought you were dead."

Tommy moved to hug Merton again but Merton pre-empted the move and stepped back, "How could I be dead? You saw me an hour ago, what's wrong with you?"

By now a crowd had gathered at the door to the cafeteria and was watching in fascination to see what would happen next. Merton pulled Tommy into the nearest empty classroom and closed the door. 

"What's wrong with you?" He repeated.

"This is impossible, you're dead, I saw you die." Tommy was shaking his head, his eyes fixed on his friend.

"When?"

"Nearly four years ago, I fought as hard as I could but…" He broke off, for the first time looking at something other than Merton and realizing where he was. "The school? What are we doing here?"

"If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's because we're students here! What's gotten into you, Tommy? Is this something to do with last night?" Merton tried unsuccessfully to hide the concern in his eyes.

Tommy wore a confused expression as he moved his gaze back to Merton, as he spoke his expression changed from confusion to joy, "If we're students here, that means it's the past. If it's the past then you're still alive, I can do it all over again, I can save you!" Tommy grabbed hold of Merton again and hugged him even tighter, this time kissing him on the lips.

"Yeuch! Tommy!"

"What's the date?"

"Date?" Merton froze in confusion, temporarily misunderstanding what Tommy was asking him, "Oh right, the date as in the date that it is." He had to think for a moment to get his mind started working properly again and he remembered and told Tommy.

Tommy grinned, "Then there's time, I'll see you later, I've got to see my family."

He opened the door and ran out, leaving Merton staring after him down the corridor still full of curious students, "Wait a minute!" Merton yelled after him but Tommy either ignored him or didn't hear, " Yeah, you go do that then," He yelled instead, "and stop kissing me!" he ducked back inside the classroom to avoid the stares of the students that were still lingering hoping for more to gossip about, "Big trouble!" he muttered then ran out of the door himself, looking for the one other person he could tell.


	4. Chapter 4

"He kissed you?!"

"On the lips!"

Lori couldn't conceal her laughter, "Congratulations, you two are perfect for each other." She laughed even harder at Merton's scowl, "Well at least he didn't use tongue. He didn't, did he?"

"No! But that's not the point.  A future Tommy has taken over Tommy's body and he says I'm going to die!"

"Are you even sure it was a future Tommy?"

"It's the only logical explanation," Merton paused, "actually it's not logical at all, but the only logical explanation is that Tommy's gone completely insane, so I'm going to stick to the future Tommy explanation.  This must be similar to what happened to him last night too, but with a past version."

Lori stopped had laughing by now and was sitting thoughtfully on the floor leaning against a wall with her arms hugging her knees, "So there's a future Tommy somewhere out there kissing people?"

Merton nodded, "Can we stop with the talk about kissing?  Tommy is not going to be happy about that when he's back to normal, everyone was staring at him!  He's out there somewhere though, I suppose we should find him."

Lori nodded and got to her feet, they made their was to the hearse and Merton sped away as fast as he could towards Tommy's house just as the bell rang for the end of lunch.  "How was the kiss?" Lori asked, Merton scowled at her again.

A search of Tommy's house proved fruitless, as soon as the commercials came on Dean told them he hadn't seen his brother since he left for school that morning.  Checking the rest of the house in case Tommy had managed to sneak in without Dean noticing revealed nothing.  "He said he was going to see his family, not his room," said Merton as they climbed dejectedly back into the hearse and drove away, "and since he hasn't gone to see Dean, than must mean his mom and dad."

"So we should go find them?" asked Lori dubiously, "If he has gone to find one of them they'll think it's weird enough him turning up, if we arrive too they'll think we've all gone mad."

"True, and it might look even stranger if we turned up and he wasn't there."

"Okay, so what do we do, go back to school and act like nothing's wrong?"

Merton thought for a second, "We could," he said eventually, "I was looking forward to today's science class, but something tells me future Tommy's more likely to look for us at the lair, he's not exactly going to be thrilled at the idea of doing all his classes again years after he graduated."

"Let's do that then," said Lori in agreement and Merton turned around and headed home.

Unfortunately things didn't go exactly to plan.  Merton hadn't reckoned on Tommy not showing up almost straight away, as it happened he and Lori found themselves sitting waiting for almost two hours, not wanting to leave and look for the elusive werewolf because there was always a chance he would turn up at the lair while they were away.

"Hey guys, what's up?"  Merton and Lori looked up simultaneously as they heard the door open and Tommy walk in.  "Anyone want to go the Hungry Bucket?  The weirdest thing happened today, I was in the cafeteria just about to eat my lunch, then the next thing I know it's two hours later and I'm walking into my house.  I don't know what happened but I don't think I ate anything, I'm starving."  As if to prove a point, his stomach rumbled loudly.

"I think he's back to normal again," Merton whispered to Lori.

"What do you mean?" Tommy asked.  Lori bit her lip to stop herself from laughing again.

Merton stared at his friend, "Tommy, your body was possessed by a future version of yourself from a time where I'm dead!"

"What?"

"Like the past version of you last night," Lori explained, "I didn't see him, but apparently he was pretty…pleased to see Merton."

Tommy's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the look of amusement on Lori's face, "Well I'd be pleased to see him too if he'd died and I went back in time."

"Well I'm flattered, of course, but what I think Lori is trying to tell you is that you should prepare for some public humiliation tomorrow, considering you dropped chicken all over the floor and kissed me." Interrupted Merton

"Kissed you?!"

"Twice," said Merton apologetically, "I didn't have any way of stopping you…him."

Tommy blushed, "I'm really sorry about that man," he said.

Merton shrugged it off, shaking his head, "No problem, but you might want to consider kissing a girl or two before the rumors get out of control."

"Wait a minute, he said you were dead?!"  All worry about embarrassment and vicious rumors were pushed to the back of Tommy's mind as the other, much more important, thing his friends were telling him finally sunk in.

"Finally someone cares!  Everyone's been so hung up on this kiss thing that they keep forgetting about my impending demise!"  Merton practically leapt up from his chair staring pleadingly at Tommy, "You have to help me!  I don't want to die!"

"Relax Merton, I'm not gonna let you die.  We know about it now, we'll be able to stop it from happening."

Merton frowned at the taller boy and sat back down, "Not necessarily," he said glumly, "From future Tommy's point of view it has already happened, it's the past to him.  Just because its in our future doesn't mean it's preventable."

"Merton, that doesn't make any sense," Lori told him, "If it hasn't happened, we can make sure it doesn't happen.  How did future Tommy say you die?"

"He didn't tell me, he just said 'there's time', he seemed fairly adamant that he could save me, but I'm not so sure.  We know I'm not a part of Tommy's future, his cyborg told us so.  This might be why."

Tommy shook his head, "No way, you're not gonna make me believe there's nothing we can do.  Besides, how do we even know it was really a future version of me?  None of this death stuff could be true."

"Well, I decided I'd rather believe future and past versions of you are taking over your body for some thus far undisclosed reason than believe you're suffering from some bizarre form of multiple personality disorder.  If you want you can just go ahead and believe you're insane, but I'm going to stick with my theory for now."  He shrugged for effect and quietly wondered whether he had chosen to believe the right theory, especially if future Tommy really was from the future it didn't bode well for his life expectancy.

Tommy took a minute to consider his options, "Okay, so it was definitely a future version of me." He decided eventually, "So, did he give you any clues about when it's supposed to happen."

"Not really," Merton was resting his head on one of his hands and using the fingers on his other hand to tap on his desk, "He did say it happened about four years ago, but that doesn't help much because I don't know how far in the future he was from.  He also said that he fought as hard as he could, that sounds like some evil thing got me and you couldn't stop it.  Also not really helpful, but it's better than nothing."

"Well if he said there's time, that means you'll be alright for now, doesn't it?" asked Lori, "So maybe we should stop worrying about it and carry on as normal.  If future Tommy comes back we'll ask him."

Merton frowned, "I can't help wondering whether 'there's time' meant 'I've still got a few hours' or 'I'm good for ten more years', but I see your point.  I can't let knowing the future get in the way of enjoying the present, everyone dies and I'm lucky because I might have a chance to be saved.  If you two want to go home I'll understand, if you need me later I'll be here, cowering under the bed."

Tommy clasped a hand onto his best friend's shoulder, "We're not going to leave you here on your own Merton, not after what's happened today.  We'll stay here and if anything happens we'll be ready for it, right Lori?"

"Sure, it's not like I had any plans for tonight anyway." 

"Thanks guys!" Said Merton over-enthusiastically with a large grin. He had expected them to stay anyway, but even after almost a year it still sometimes surprised him that he had friends who would choose to hang out with him rather than do something more interesting.

"So, shall we watch a video or something or do you want us to just stand guard?" asked Tommy after a moment, snapping Merton out of his daydream. 

"Um, sure.  Whatever you want., he said.  They chose to watch one of Merton's DVDs and Merton sat happily in between his two friends while to one side of him, Tommy quietly worried that Merton's other theory was the right one and he really was going crazy.


	5. Chapter 5

"Tommy, are you, you?" asked a whispered voice.

Tommy turned to see Merton standing next to him, staring into his locker rooting through the contents as if he were looking for something. "Yep, plain old present day Tommy, no kisses, no confusion."

Tommy glanced into Merton's locker and saw that there was hardly anything in it.  Judging by way he was searching through he would have thought it was full to overflowing.   "Lost something?" he asked.

"No," said Merton, still whispering, "I just didn't think you'd want us to be seen talking to each other for a few days, not after what happened yesterday."

Part of Tommy wanted to agree with him, the part that was so revolted by the idea of what had happened that he never wanted to even see Merton again.  Thankfully that was the smallest part of him and seemed to be shrinking by the minute.  The rest of him was split into two more parts, half that wanted to carry on as normal – after all it wasn't really him that had kissed Merton, was it? And half that was curious and terrified by the strange, new emotions that he was pretending with all his might that he wasn't feeling.

No matter how hard he tried, the images of him and Merton just wouldn't go away and he found his mind wondering back to them again and again. He tried to think about what it could mean, but he wasn't sure he liked the answer.  Either way, Merton was his best friend and he wasn't going to let anything come between them.  "This is ridiculous, Merton, I'm not going to not talk to you because of what people might think, I don't care what they think.  And you've never worried about other people's opinions, so quit trying to protect me."

As soon as he said it he realized he may have made a mistake.  It was true that Merton didn't seem to mind constantly being called a freak and being bullied for the way he dressed and acted, but just because he didn't act like he minded didn't mean that it didn't bother him.  Not only that, but the rumors that were probably beginning to circulate around the school were nothing to do with Merton's dress sense or the style of his hair.  People would be whispering altogether different things behind his back, untrue things, things that Merton shouldn't have to put up with.  Why would anyone want to have to put up with that unnecessarily?  Tommy asked himself, but there was a bigger question praying on his thoughts.

Why didn't _he_ mind?  Why was it that instead of being filled with dread at the idea of the rumors flying around, the pointed fingers and the laughing faces, he was excited?  He wanted to know what it would be like, not the experience of being a laughing stock, but what it would be like to have people think that Merton was his boyfriend.

Merton slowly pulled his head out of his locker and looked at Tommy in confusion, wondering what strange thoughts could be going on in the jock's head.  "Alright, have it your way," he said, "but you're not going to like it, don't say I didn't warn you."  
Tommy smiled and put an arm around Merton's shoulder as they walked to class, a gesture that the day before no one would have thought anything of, but now it could mean something else entirely.  It didn't, but it could.  

Merton looked at the empty corridor and wondered what to make of Tommy's actions and whether they would be the same when someone was really around to see them.  He had felt for sure that everything would change now, and it was changing, he just wasn't sure in which way.

Tommy tried not to meet anyone's eyes as he walked along the corridor to his third class of the day.  He didn't know whether he was being paranoid or whether he was really being stared at.  He knew he'd always attracted a certain amount of attention as captain of the football team and one of the most popular guys at the school, but he'd never noticed smiles and smirks being concealed behind hands or by people turning away.  He'd never noticed conversations stopping as soon as someone set eyes on him, and as much as he sometimes liked to be the center of attention, he'd never noticed quite so many people staring at him before.  Was he being paranoid?  Could it be that he was making everything up in his head because he was feeling more self conscious than usual?  He didn't think so.  Merton had been right, he didn't like it, not one bit.  Everywhere he went he felt eyes staring at him, waiting for him to do something else.  

Had he been spoiled by his social position at school?  Did other students have to put up with this every day, wondering and worrying what people were thinking and saying about them?  

Did Merton?

His fellow members of the football team seamed to be avoiding him, it was almost as if they were afraid of him, and everywhere he looked there were those damn smirks.  He made a vow to himself that if he ever did find himself sucked into the past and confronted with Merton, who had been dead for years, he wouldn't kiss him.  No matter how strong the temptation he had to remember, kissing was out of the question.  If he remembered not to do it when he became future Tommy, future Tommy wouldn't have kissed Merton and he neither of them would have to be putting up with this.

He wondered how Merton was coping.  He hadn't seen his best friend since first period ended and he had seemed fine then.  Of course, Merton was a little more used to dealing with that kind of attention than Tommy, but the sort of negative attention Merton usually attracted was the sort that he wanted to attract or brought on by something he had done himself.  Tommy wondered again whether he had done the right thing by insisting that they carry on as normal at school, Merton might have wanted to distance himself from the incident as much as he could.  He might have been as embarrassed as Tommy felt he should be.

When they met up in their next class, he decided, he would ask him and find out for certain what Merton wanted to do.  It was true they would both probably receive the same kind of treatment whether they didn't speak for weeks or carried on as normal, but at least they could be trying to do something about it.  The way things were, Tommy felt as though anything that might happen would be partially his own fault because he hadn't discouraged the rumors as much as he could have.  If he did something about it, it was all future Tommy's fault, unfortunately that didn't help him much because if future Tommy was real, Tommy was going to become him one day and go back in time, kiss Merton and cause all this trouble.  Thinking about it made his head hurt.

Tommy didn't want to cause his best friend any more embarrassment than was necessary just to try to sort out what was going on inside his own head.  Merton had embarrassed Tommy a few times in the past but he couldn't really remember any time when he had embarrassed Merton.

Then again, if he thought about it like that, maybe the Goth deserved a little payback.


	6. Chapter 6

He didn't know what happened, but he knew instinctively that something was wrong.  Something wasn't as it had been.  Tommy looked around the classroom, it was the same room he had been sitting in a moment ago, the same teacher was talking about something he didn't understand and the same people were looking bored.  Then it struck him, he knew what had changed, it was where he was sitting.  The two friends from the football team that he usually sat with were in their usual place, but his desk, next to them was occupied by someone else.  He was sitting closer to the back of the room, and to his left was the weird kid, Merton, from the other night

He struggled to keep himself calm, not wanting to panic.  He wasn't in the future, it was all in his head, he wasn't a werewolf, there were no such things as werewolves.  Okay, so maybe he was going insane, but at least that meant that none of the other things were happening again.

"Tommy," Merton whispered to him urgently.

Tommy ignored him, he wasn't going to speak to the boy, he wasn't even there.

"Tommy!" he said it louder this time and more urgently.  Still, Tommy pretended not to hear.

"You're wolfing out!"  This whisper was quieter than the rest, obviously designed so that no one else could hear it.  The boy obviously wanted to protect the insane and impossible secret.  As much as he didn't believe what was happening to him, Tommy couldn't help but react, he looked at his hands and saw to his alarm that they were becoming the same wolf paws he had seen before.  The realization scared him even more, sending more and more adrenaline pumping around his system, speeding up the change.

"Get out of here!" whispered Merton.

He didn't even bother to pretend not to hear this time, delusion or not this was too real.  As real as the last time and just as terrifying.  It was bad enough for this to happen, but supposing, just supposing it was real, he didn't want anyone else to see him like that.  He got up and ran out of the classroom without a word, the door slammed behind him and he and he tried to think about where he could go.  Where would he be safe?  The only place he could think of was the bathroom, and he ran there as quickly as he could.  Quicker than he had ever ran in his life.  In fact it barely seemed to take any time at all to move from his seat in the classroom to locked inside a cubical in the bathroom where no one could see him.  He was safely hidden from the world.  Hidden because he was a freak and no one could know.  If this really was his future he didn't want it, he would do anything to stop it, anything.  He stood resting his head against the wall.  "It's not real," he muttered to himself, "Not real, not real, not real…"

"Tommy, are you in here?  Are you okay?"  It was Merton again.  If you could say one thing about that kid he really did seem to care about him.

Tommy opened the door a crack and peered out, making sure no one else was around to see him.  The bathroom was empty except for the Goth.

"Do I look okay?" he asked. 

Merton's eyes glanced over him for a moment in a way that for some reason he didn't understand, made him slightly uncomfortable.  "Not really, no."

Tommy bit his lip and tried to concentrate on calming himself down and becoming human again, or at least looking human again, as Merton and Lori had helped him to do before.

Merton joined in with a soothing haiku or two and eventually he felt the hair retract back into his skin and his appearance become normal again.  He reassured himself with a long glance in the mirror and let out a shaky sigh, burying his head in his hands as he did.

"What's bothering you?" Merton asked, "You were worried about what people are going to say to you after class, weren't you?  I know it looked like T'n'T were glaring at us, but I think it was just me they wanted to scare.  They do it all the time, you just probably didn't notice before now."

"What are you talking about?" asked Tommy, "T'n'T are friends of mine, why would they want to scare me?"

Merton gave his best friend a strange look before he realized what was going on.  "You're not my Tommy, are you?  You're past Tommy again, from before you were a werewolf."

"I'm not a werewolf, this is all in my head, none of it is really happening."

"Sorry, it is."  Merton thought for a minute, "You need to tell me what you've been doing since you went back to your time, did you tell anyone about coming here, about the wolf?"  He knew that anything past Tommy did could have affected the time line and made changes to his present.  He didn't know whether changes had been made already or whether there would be anything he could do to reverse them if they had, but he had to know.

Tommy shook his head, "I don't want people to think I'm crazy," he said, "I didn't remember it anyway.  I'd managed to forget about all of this until I found myself back here.  I didn't even realize what was happening at first, then I realized where I was and I… I guess I panicked."

Merton felt bizarre mixture of relief and dread.  Past Tommy didn't remember his trips to the present, that meant there was nothing he could do there that might expose his secret identity in the present.  On the other hand, it ruined the only hope he was still hanging onto that the past and future Tommys weren't real, that he wasn't really going to die.

He had been thinking that if the past Tommy really was from the past, present Tommy would have remembered a trip to the future, but he didn't seem to.  Now he knew that was because past Tommy had forgotten all about his little trip though time.  Good news for Tommy that the chances that he was insane were reduced but bad news for Merton, who was fast losing hope of ever being able to write the screenplay to a blockbuster movie before he died.  Of course it was still possible that Tommy did have something wrong with him, but Merton had never been able to believe that in the first place, he certainly couldn't now.

But what could he do?  He couldn't have a past version of Tommy running about who might wolf out at any second and wouldn't know what to do about it, he could reveal Tommy's secret.  "Come on," he said, tugging on the taller boy's T-shirt, "we've got to get out of here before something else happens."

Tommy didn't make any effort to resist, he just let himself be led out of the bathroom, down the corridor and out of the door.  As they went he heard a voice behind him shout "Hey Dawkins, have fun in the bathroom with your boyfriend?"  he turned around to see T'n'T high five each other before being ushered back into the history classroom by the teacher.

"Ignore them," said Merton under his breath.  Tommy turned back but unclenched Merton's fist from the front of his clothes and walked without being dragged.  He didn't know what else his future self had been getting up to other than being bitten by werewolves, but he thought he had a good idea and really wished he didn't.

Merton led him to a hearse, Tommy hesitated before climbing into a car usually used for transporting dead bodies, but realized he didn't have much choice.  They drove back to the lair, went inside and Merton sat down at his desk.

"So what do we do now?" asked Tommy.

"I don't know, I haven't exactly got a plan.  I just had to get you out of school before you changed again.  You've…well, you will do a pretty good job of keeping you secret up to now.  I couldn't let you blow it by changing."

Tommy sat down and rested his head in his hands again.  "I can't believe this is my future."  He said, "Look at it, it's horrible.  I'm a monster that has to hide from people so they don't find out, I'm being bullied by the two biggest guys in school and I'm…" he broke off

"You're what?"

"I'm…gay." He whispered the word so quietly that even he could barely hear it, not wanting to believe it but finding himself saying it all the same.

Merton froze, then opened his mouth and a garbled, shocked stream of words erupted from it.  "You're what?   No, no…you're not gay.  At least I don't think you are, you never said you were anyway.  I know it's the sort of thing you might not mention but I'm fairly sure I'd know.  Of course, I didn't know, not until now.  You're gay?"

"No!" Tommy didn't know what to do, he had assumed form what T'n'T had said, but he had assumed he was dating Merton.  That was the sort of thing he would expect Merton to notice.  That meant he wasn't gay.  "I just thought…because of what people were saying.  I'm not, I was just worried my future self was, that I was going to be in the future."

"It's just a rumor, not true." Merton didn't feel the need to explain what had caused that rumor or mention any doubts about Tommy's sexuality that had recently begun to form in his own mind.  None of that would help Tommy's obviously freaked out past self.

"A rumor.  That's not so bad then, embarrassing, but not so bad.  But all the other stuff, that's true."  A dejected look formed on his face and Merton resisted the impulse to comfort his friend with an arm around the shoulder or even a hug.  This wasn't his Tommy.

"You're not a monster, Tommy.  You're a good werewolf, you help people.  My Tommy, the Tommy from this time, I think he's accepted what he is and when you become him you'll have accepted it too.  It's not always easy, but he does a lot of good for this town.  Even if the people don't always realize it.

"And you needn't worry about T'n'T either, they like to think they'll capture the werewolf one day but they never will and they don't know it's you.  Normally they don't bother you, I'm the one that has to worry about them."

Tommy didn't look convinced.  He didn't like his future any more now that he had the last time.  He couldn't see a single thing to like about it.


	7. Chapter 7

"So you'd never been here until you met me?" asked Tommy as he sat at a table in the Factory with Merton.

Merton shook his head, "I'd never really been anywhere until I met you.  My idea of a good night would be being able to watch videos in the lair without Becky interrupting to tell me to keep the noise down.  That's still a good night actually, but I like doing this too now."  He stood up and waved to someone at the other side of the room.  Tommy turned around to see the girl he had met before, Lori.  She made her way through the crowds of teenagers and sat down at their table.  Tommy got up to get her a drink.

"Is he any better?" asked Lori, concerned.

Merton shook his head, "He's still past Tommy," he explained, "I don't know why, I just wish I could figure out why this is happening."

"I know what you mean, when he went back to normal last time I thought it might be all over but it seems to begetting worse and worse, how long has it been now?"

Merton checked his watch, "Almost six hours since he ran out of class," he said.

Lori frowned, "That's the longest yet, what if it keeps getting longer and longer until we never see our Tommy again?"

"I don't know, I've thought of that." Merton screwed up his forehead in worry, "I don't _think_ it will, but if I'm honest that's just because I hope it won't.  We don't know this is the longest yet though, because he was still past Tommy when he walked home from the lair that night.  All we know is that he was our Tommy again when we saw him the next day, he could have changed at any time during the night."

"I hate this," whispered Lori, watching Tommy picking his way back to their table with his hands full of drinks, "I just want him back to normal."

Merton nodded, that was all he wanted too.  He wanted his Tommy back, the one that would talk to him because he wanted too, not because he had too, the one that didn't care what other people thought of him, but not the one that kissed him, not in public anyway.

Where had that thought come from?

They talked all night, mostly about Tommy and all the things he would do between the time he was from and the present.  Merton decided telling him things wouldn't effect the timeline because Tommy wouldn't be able to remember when he got home.  He wanted to make his friend feel more at ease, he knew what it was like to have people think of you as a freak, and to think of yourself in the same way, he just wanted Tommy to realize that he wasn't an evil monster.

Tommy didn't seem that convinced.  Telling him about everything he had done obviously didn't have the same effect as actually doing it, Tommy just couldn't see past the fangs and fur.

They didn't leave until the Factory was beginning to close, no one felt like going home, Merton to a room full of books that couldn't tell him anything about how to help Tommy, Lori to homework and worry and Tommy to a house full of people that he was keeping a terrifying secret from.

***

The streets of Pleasentville, like any other streets anywhere in the world, always changed dramatically at night.  Even the most calm and happy part of town could become something dark and foreboding.  People used to a place tend not to notice it as easily, but to a stranger an unknown town at night is a terrifying place where anything can happen.

Mrs Green stopped her car and looked around, pulled the scrap of paper out of her  handbag and consulted the directions she had written there earlier as her sister explained over the telephone.  She was so excited, she hadn't seen her sister for almost fifteen years, they had lost touch completely and then, suddenly, out of the blue she had called.  It looked like she was in the right place, Pleasentville.  She shrugged her shoulders as she buttoned up her coat, it didn't look that pleasant to her, anyone could be hiding in those trees.  She wished she could have arrived earlier but it had been such a long drive and she had had so much to do.

She locked the door to the car and rested her handbag on her shoulder, keeping the scrap of paper in her hand to be sure she got the right house number.  Making sure to look both ways on the deserted road, she stepped out, but felt a hand on her shoulder.  She half turned, yelping in surprise at the evil look in the eye of the man she was facing.  He was in his late twenties, he had stubble on his face that he hadn't shaved for days and one hand was in the pocket of his jacket, possibly holding a knife or even a gun.

"Give me your bag and your keys." he said in a low voice.

Mrs Green knew what she should do in a situation like this, give the attacker everything he wanted, don't do anything to antagonize him.  Do everything he says.  She knew what she should do, but knowing what to do and doing it were two very different things. 

She screamed.

She screamed louder than she had ever screamed in her life, louder than she had ever thought she could scream.  Her terror was so absolute that she couldn't even bring herself to make her fingers to drop the bag.  She just looked into the eyes of her attacker and screamed.

Suddenly someone else appeared, he moved faster than anyone she had ever seen, before she knew it the attacker was laying on the floor unconscious.  Next to her was a boy and a girl, looking concerned.

"Are you all right ma'am?"

She nodded and realized she was shaking uncontrollably.  The man lay unmoving on the floor by her feet.  "Is he…?"

The boy dressed all in black with black, spiky hair shook his head, "He's just unconscious," he said, "Is there anywhere we can take you?"  

She nodded again, "I was going to my sister's, that house there." she pointed to one of the houses across the road with a trembling finger.

"You go with her Merton, call the police, Tommy  and I will stay with her and make sure he doesn't get away." said the girl.

Merton helped her across the empty road and Lori turned to Tommy, "You can come out now," she said.

Tommy jumped silently down from one of the trees and landed on the floor next to the would be mugger.  "That was pretty cool," he said.

Lori nodded and grinned back at him, "See, now do you get what Merton was saying?  You're a good werewolf."

"Yeah, I guess I am."  Tommy smiled, maybe his future wasn't so terrible after all.

i

Merton finished telling Tommy the story of his past self saving the old woman and Tommy smiled, "See, all my selves are heroes," he said.  He had suddenly found himself on the outskirts of the park standing with Lori next to an unconscious man.  Lori had explained what had happened, and when he got back from making sure the old woman was all right, Merton had given him the same explanation, only embellishing it with dramatic hand movements and sound effects.  Tommy couldn't help but smile at his friend's enthusiasm and he was pleased that past Tommy had gone home not hating what he was going to become, but it bothered him that he had lost almost an entire day to his past self and he didn't want it to happen again.

"I don't know whether you'll have to worry about that any more." Merton told him, "You returned and your past self left almost as soon as he realized he didn't have to fear his future, or at least that's how it sounded to me.  I don't know for certain of course, but it's possible that he just had to realize that and now he won't come back again."  He was making it up, of course, but he made up so many things and nine out of ten times he was right.  Plus he was sure he saw a similar plot in a movie once, he just couldn't remember what it was.  "Were you feeling uncertain about the future this time last year?" he asked.

Tommy stared at Merton trying to decide what to say.  He settled on shaking his head and staring at Merton, waiting for him to say something else.  "We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Merton told him, "but I'm 99 percent sure he won't be back.”

Tommy seemed satisfied by the explanation and he relaxed slightly, but Lori wasn't convinced.  "That doesn't make any sense." she decided, "If past Tommy went back to the past not remembering anything, you don't remember traveling to the future about a year ago do you Tommy?"

Tommy shook his head, "Then what would be the point in him finding out how great it is to be a werewolf when he's just going to forget it all as soon as he gets home anyway?"

Merton frowned, "No idea," he admitted finally, "but it's as good an explanation as any.  If he doesn't come back we'll know that could have been it."  
Tommy sighed, "Your explanations are getting flakier and flakier, Merton.  One of these days you're going to be wrong."  Merton looked away, realizing he had been found out and Tommy smiled to himself at the look of embarrassment on the smaller boy's face but trying to force out of his mind the idea that his friend looked cute like that.  He felt more and more confused by the way that he was feeling, but that didn't matter.  No matter what, he knew that if anything happened to Merton he would never forgive himself.  Ever.

Merton cleared his throat and looked back up to meet Tommy's gaze.  Tommy looked down, hoping his friend hadn't realized he had been staring.  "Hopefully not today though," Merton said, "now all we've got to figure out is what your future self wants, then hopefully we won't hear anything from him for a while either."

"Well that should be easy enough," Tommy told him, "he wants to save your life."


	8. Chapter 8

After school the next day, Merton found himself flicking hopelessly through a book he had read ten times before, searching in vain for something that could help him figure out what was happening to Tommy. He could find nothing on possession by past and future versions of yourself, either this was the first time it had happened, it had never been written about before, or something else was wrong. None of these possibilities helped Tommy however, and he was willing to keep searching until he found something that did.

It was true that they hadn't seen any signs of other Tommys for almost a day, and he was tempted to take that that as a good sign and have a rest, after all he had been reading for three straight hours and found nothing, but even if Tommy was better, and he doubted it could be that easy, there was still the small matter of his own impending death to consider. He was torn between hoping Tommy was better and wanting the chance to talk to future Tommy again and ask him what was going to happen.

Merton had never been the type of person to be called selfish by anyone, but he really did hope he would get another chance to speak to future Tommy. He consoled himself with the idea that the past and future personalities might be irritating but they didn't actually hurt Tommy. His best friend would probably, hopefully, rather put up with them for a little longer than see Merton die.

Whatever Tommy's opinion on the subject however, it seemed he didn't have a lot of choice. When the door to the lair opened and Merton saw Tommy standing there, he knew immediately that it wasn't his Tommy. It was something in his eyes, he had noticed it the first time he had met future Tommy. A look of disbelief at what was happening, but not in the same way that past Tommy had worn his own look of disbelief, showing horror at his situation and wishing that he could go back to his normal life as quickly as possible. Future Tommy wore a look of wonder, the look of someone who couldn't believe what was happening, yes, but in a good way. Future Tommy had a second chance and Merton could see it in his eyes.

"Merton," he said, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him.

Merton smiled, unable temporarily to believe his own good luck, "I knew you'd come back," he said, "you have to help me, tell me what's going to happen to me. It's been driving me mad knowing something terrible's going to happen and not being able to do anything about it."

Future Tommy's expression changed to a look of sympathy, "I know," he said, "I remember seeing what this was doing to you when I was your Tommy. I didn't want to leave you like that, I didn't ever want to leave you, but I had to see my family. You don't know what it's been like for me, Merton."

That was true, he had no idea what would happen to Tommy or anyone else he knew in the future. It must have been hard enough for him to lose his best friend, but now it looked like something happened to his family, or at least happened to drive a wedge between them. He remained silent, not sure of what he could say, waiting for Tommy to go on.

"Now I need to see _you_ ," Tommy told him, "I need to save you."

"What's going to happen to me?" pleaded Merton.

"Nothing, I'm going to do everything I can to save you. I think that's why this happened, so you don't have to die. As long as I keep going backwards in time I always have a chance to save you and this time it's going to work."

" _This_ time? What do you mean?"

"When I was your Tommy, everything that's happening to him now happened to me. A future version of myself told you that you were going to die and tried to save you, but it didn't work. This time it will."

Merton nodded, trying to hide his uncertainty. Knowing that an attempt to save him had failed before didn't improve his confidence, but they had to try. Despite any uncertainties he had about the possibility of changing the past, was willing to try anything. "What do we have to do?" he asked.

Tommy sat down before he began and took a deep breath. "I know you don't think this is going to work," he said, "but it will, I know it will. I can change things here, I've already done things slightly differently to last time. We'll be ready for it this time"

"But when is it going to happen, and what _is it?"_

"Tomorrow night, the Gorath."

Merton gasped. Tomorrow night. He had so little time and so many things he had never had the chance to do. But how could the Gorath do anything to him, Tommy had killed it several days before. That was what had started this whole mess, "That's not possible," he said, " I saw it disintegrate, it couldn't have survived." _Could it?_

"It didn't survive, it had a mate. She wanted revenge. She's going to come here tomorrow, just before eleven o'clock and take you. In my history I wasn't here, I arrived a few minutes after you'd been taken. It left a trail and I followed it but I was too late, you were dying. I killed it, but it didn't do any good. It had already done what it wanted. 

"This time you've got to make sure I'm here to protect you. I've been trying to find out as much as I can about the Gorath for years so I'd be ready to tell you what to do, but all I could find out that I don't think you already know is it's sensitive to bronze. Not as much as silver hurts me, but it'll work better than the weapons I used."

Merton sat open mouthed as he listened to this. Listening to the details of his death was unnerving to say the least, and the idea that a Gorath could think like that was incredible. From what he had read it was basically a solitary, mindless creature that spent its time terrorizing innocent people. Of course, it made sense that they would have mates, otherwise there would be no way for them to breed and survive, but the idea that they could understand the concept of revenge gave them a whole new dimension. "But why does it come after me?" he asked, "You were the one that killed it's mate, surely you would be the one it wanted to hurt."

"It did hurt me, more than you can imagine. It decided that since I killed it's mate, it would…" Tommy paused, looking uncomfortable and cleared his throat, "um…it would kill mine."

"That's ridiculous!" gasped Merton jumping out of his chair and knocking his book to the floor as he did, "I mean, it made a mistake. Didn't it?" There was no way anyone could think of he and Tommy as 'mates' not in the way future Tommy seemed to be describing. Well, no one except for past Tommy and a few morons at school, but they didn't count. If Tommy had been telling him all this was going to happen years in the future he might have been able to accept that things were going to happen that he didn't realize yet. Maybe some day in the future, if he survived, he and Tommy might be something more than friends. It wasn't likely, he didn't think about Tommy like that, he liked girls, but he accepted that feelings could change. Especially with everything that had been happening recently he could almost convince himself to believe it, but it would take time. One day wasn't long enough for anything to happen.

"I know what you're thinking," future Tommy told him, "I was thinking exactly the same thing when you explained all this to me. You're going to do that pretty soon by the way, then you'll tell me this: the Gorath knew something we didn't, I think it could smell something on us that gave us away. We weren't even aware of it ourselves then, but the Gorath picked up on it and decided to take revenge on me by killing the person that meant as much to her as her mate."

"If you're saying Tommy and I are secretly in love with each other you're wrong." Merton told him, "To be honest I've been wondering about you, I mean Tommy, my Tommy, for a while now, but I know my own mind."

Tommy shook his head, "No, you don't. You don't even know yourself as well as I did, as your Tommy knows himself now. He's confused, he doesn't know what to think. Part of him is telling him to act on his feelings and the other half is pushing the 'rules' in his face, telling him how much he has to lose if he lets you know, what people might think, what you might think. He doesn't even think you'll feel the same way."

"Well he's right, I don't think about you…I mean Tommy…I mean…You _are_ Tommy…" He broke off into a nervous, high pitched giggle, "What I mean is, I don't like guys, not like that. I'm straight."

"I don't believe you."

Merton glanced up to look future Tommy in the eye but broke eye contact after less than a second, "Why not?" he asked quietly, looking at the floor and fearing the answer to his question.

"Because you made the first move."

Merton shook his head as tears of confusion began to well up in his eyes. Part of him didn't want to believe what he was hearing, but despite what he had been telling himself, it sounded so right that he couldn't bring himself to stop listening. "I can't have done. Tommy's a friend, just a friend." He was talking more to himself than to his friend's future self standing self consciously in front of him.

Tommy reached out and put a reassuring hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. Merton flinched in response, "I know how you feel," he said, "I was so confused when you did it, but you helped me figure out a lot of things."

Merton had been fighting the tears that were sitting inside his eyes, blurring his vision, but eventually he couldn't hold them back any longer. A large tear dropped from one of his eyes and ran down his cheek. Tommy reached out and brushed it away with his thumb, gently guiding Merton's face upwards to meet his eyes. "You know it's right," he said, "you can feel it, can't you?"

Merton nodded slowly but not hesitantly and Tommy moved closer, embracing his best friend, his lover. It had been so long, he had missed him so much, more than he had realized. He knew in that moment that he didn't want to live if he couldn't be with Merton, not for one moment without him. Gently, so as not to frighten the boy, he planted a tender kiss on his cheek. He felt Merton's body stiffen in surprise, then relax.

Driven by some until now unknown urge, Merton felt his own arms embracing Tommy, feeling the strength in his muscles, running his fingers through his hair, then finally touching his lips to Tommy's. He kissed him, cautiously at first, then harder, exploring every part of his mouth with his tongue, trying desperately to touch every part of Tommy's body, wanting to find out everything he had been missing in all the time he had been lying to himself. The moment could have lasted a few seconds or an eternity, Merton couldn't tell, all he knew was Tommy. Tommy's chest, Tommy's eyes, Tommy's mouth. For that moment the only thing in his world was Tommy, until, to his disappointment Tommy pulled back.

"There'll be time for this later," he said breathlessly, running a finger down Merton's chest, Merton realizing as he did that they were both half undressed. He didn't even remember that happening. "I have to go," Tommy told him.

Merton nodded, "But what do we do now?" he asked.

Future Tommy smiled, "I think I've done my part, just remember everything I told you." he said, "I'm leaving now, going back to my time, and when I do, you'll be there waiting for me." He didn't finish the sentence with the 'I hope' that Merton could see in his eyes.

Merton nodded again, "I will be there, I promise." he told him. Tommy bushed a finger against Merton's pale cheek once again, only this time there were no tears to wipe away, the tears were in his own eyes.

Merton quickly re-buttoned his shirt and looked in the mirror, seeing to his relief that his spiked hair still looked as it had done. He didn't want to have to explain to present Tommy what had happened to him, not yet. Future Tommy pulled the T-shirt back on that he had discarded on the floor, and gave Merton one last, longing look.

Then, in an instant Merton knew he was gone, replaced by his younger, present self who wore a look of confusion. "Merton? What's going on? I was at home a second ago."

Merton sighed, not sure what to say first. "It was your future self again, we had a long talk, it was fairly…enlightening."

Tommy, of course, didn't grasp the double meaning in Merton's words. "He told you how to save yourself?" Merton nodded. "That's great! What do we need to do?"

Tommy listened attentively as Merton told him about the Gorath's mate and what was going to happen, missing out future Tommy's explanation of why Merton was the one taken, but Tommy was no idiot, he could tell that he wasn't hearing the whole story, "What are you missing out, Merton?" he asked.

Merton shook his head and answered, "Nothing," a little too quickly.

"Well why does the Gorath want _you_ dead? I'm the one that killed its mate."

"Um…don't know. He never said."

Tommy frowned at his friend but reminded himself that Merton would never not tell him something important, especially if it had something to do with saving his own life. The important thing was that they had a way to save Merton, once that was done Tommy would be able to grill him on all the little details of his conversations with his past and future selves to his heart's content. "So you're absolutely sure you're safe for tonight?" he asked.

Merton noted the concern in Tommy's voice. He knew that if he asked him to, his best friend would stay the night with him without hesitation. In fact if he gave any sign of worry Tommy might offer to stay himself. As good as that sounded, Merton wasn't sure how well he would cope with Tommy spending the night. This was the same Tommy that had only minutes before kissed him with more passion that he had ever know in his life. He wanted to be kissed like that again and he didn't want to accidentally frighten Tommy. He would explain that part of his conversation later, when he was ready, though he got the feeling that for the timeline to function properly he would have to tell Tommy before he was due to fight the Gorath in case anything went wrong. Otherwise he might die with Tommy never knowing how he felt and when Tommy got his own chance to travel back in time and try again, he wouldn't know why Merton was the Gorath's target. "I'm absolutely sure," he said definitely.

"I'll stay here tonight if you want, just in case."

 _Please stop tempting me._ Merton shook his head, "No, I'll be fine, really."

"Okay, if you're sure…" Tommy waited, giving Merton the chance to change his mind. The Goth thought he saw disappointment flicker across his friends face but stood his ground. "I'll see you tomorrow then." Tommy turned and left quickly, leaving Merton staring at the closing door. Merton sighed to himself and hoped he had made the right decision. If Tommy had stayed it would have given him the perfect opportunity to talk, and there was always a chance, no matter how small, that future Tommy had mistook the date and the Gorath would take him as he slept. The idea kept him awake well into the night.

Tommy wolfed out and began to run as soon as he was out of sight. He had so much wanted Merton to ask him to stay. He knew nothing would happen, that Merton just didn't feel the same way about him as he was beginning to think he felt, but every opportunity to spend time with Merton was important now because if what his future self had said was true, he might not have many more opportunities.

Ever since the idea had popped uninvited into his mind, the thought of him and Merton had become more and more appealing. Part of him just wanted the feelings to go away or refused to believe that they existed but the rest of him just wanted to see what would happen. The only thing that all of his mind seemed to agree on was that Merton had to be saved. There was no way he would be able to live with himself if anything happened to his best friend. Surely Merton realized that. Tommy wanted to protect him and it hurt that Merton had refused him.


	9. Chapter 9

Merton folded his pillow over his head in a vain attempt to block out the incessant bleeping of his alarm clock.  He had only just managed to get to sleep, it couldn't be time to get up, not yet.  It couldn't be the beginning of his Last Day.  He just wanted to sink back into the comfortable warmth of sleep and not have to worry, but it was too late.  Already the fear and panic had begin to form a knot in his stomach, and that combined with the noise meant his chance to sleep was over, he was already re-entering the state he had found himself in the previous night, laying sleeplessly in bed and praying that the last few days hadn't happened.

He got up, showered, dressed and went to school, all the time telling himself that this wouldn't he the last time he did each thing.  Tommy was going to save him, he wasn't going to die, he would be able to relax by this time tomorrow.  It didn't help.  All he could think of was what was going to happen to him, would it hurt to die?  What sort of funeral would his parents decide on?  Would Tommy cry?  He could think of nothing else, all the other little details of life that used to seem so important to him had become trivial and irrelevant, he longed for the time when his biggest worry was a beating from T'n'T or the embarrassment of tripping up in front of a girl he liked.  None of that seamed important any more.

The strangest thing was that for everyone else the world was going on as normal.  Becky still worried about her complexion and not being seen with her brother, the teachers still bothered over missing homework and handing out detentions and most of the students of Pleasentville High still stared at him as he walked past, either considering flinging an insult his way or wondering about the rumors they had heard.  In every other way things seemed so normal, no one else knew that all Merton J. Dingle wanted to do was curl up in a ball and hide from the world, or that he felt so sick with worry that he could barely notice what they said to him as he passed them on his way to class.

Tommy smiled at him reassuringly as he sat down next to him, but Merton didn't even notice, all he was aware of was that the pounding in his chest had increased in volume when the taller boy entered the room and he thought about what had happened the previous night between himself and Tommy's future self and how he had to tell Tommy about it before…before he died.

He wished he had known sooner how little time he had left, he would have given himself the chance to do all the things he had never done but wanted to, now he had to squeeze everything into less than twenty four hours.  The first thing he had to do was talk to Tommy.  Taking a deep breath he tapped the jock silently on the shoulder and beckoned for him to follow.  They crept out of the classroom and into the rapidly emptying corridor, now filled with students running to avoid being late for class and teachers strolling to their classrooms at a leisurely pace.  They avoided their teacher as she entered the classroom by turning away as she passed, then Merton waited until there was no one around, and until he could find the ability to speak and to work out exactly what he wanted to say.

"Look, Tommy," he said eventually, his heart pounding even louder in his chest, "There's something else your future self told me, something I didn't tell you last night."

"Yeah?  What is it?"

"Um…He told me…" He couldn't do it, he couldn't bring himself to just blurt it out like that in the middle of the school corridor where anyone could turn up and ask them what they were doing.  "He told me why the Gorath wanted to kill me instead of you."

Tommy remembered asking Merton about that the night before and Merton had evaded the question, why wouldn't he want Tommy to know?  "Okay, so what's the reason?" he prompted.

Merton sighed loudly and waved his hands in the air in frustration.  Why couldn't Tommy just know?  Why did he have to be the one to do this.  He just didn't have the words to explain everything, sure he could tell Tommy what his future self had said, what they had done, but he just couldn't express the feelings, the idea of suddenly realizing the truth about his emotions.  He didn't know how, he didn't exactly have a lot of experience in that sort of thing.  Giving up on words, he grabbed hold of the front of Tommy's T-shirt and dragged him into the nearest empty classroom, closing the door behind them.

Undeterred by the look of surprise on his friend's face, Merton moved closer and kissed him.  It was his third kiss with Tommy in as many days, but this one was different.  This was the real Tommy, not his future self.  This Tommy had no idea of what had happened before.  A horrible thought occurred to Merton, what if future and past Tommy had never really been real, what if they were just alternate personalities, what if there had been something wrong with Tommy?

This Tommy could have no feelings for him whatsoever, this Tommy, his best friend, his only friend, could hate him for this.  He could lose everything.  In this one moment his life, however long it would last, had changed forever.  He just didn't know what had changed, whether Tommy would push him away in disgust and never speak to him again, or whether they might become something more than friends.  If it was possible, the knot in his stomach pulled itself tighter, until he realised something.

Tommy was kissing him back.

Hesitantly at first, then with more certainty and passion.  It had all been true!  Relief flooded through Merton's body, resulting in a sigh or relief that emerged from his lips as a moan of passion.  He never wanted the moment to end, he wanted to wrap himself up in Tommy's arms and stay there forever, but it was impossible.  They were at school, and they could be seen by anyone.

Calling on all the self control he could muster, Merton pulled away from the taller boy realizing as he did how difficult it mist have been for future Tommy to do the same thing the night before.  "Not here, we can't." He managed to say.

Tommy stepped back, looking at his best friend in a whole new light, he had never imagined.  All this time he had been trying to decide whether this was what he really wanted, why?  Nothing had ever felt so right, this was the way that things were meant to be, he could feel it right through him, from his tingling skin to his racing heart.  Merton wanted him and he wanted Merton.  He nodded and tried to start his brain working again.  How had this happened?  Merton had been trying to tell him something.  Then he remembered the Gorath.  In the moment he had forgotten everything, he had forgotten the danger that Merton was in and suddenly is came rushing back to him.  Merton could die!  He wasn't going to let it happen, he needed Merton.  And the Gorath wanted to kill Merton because… "Because I love you.  That's why it wants you dead."

Merton nodded, closing his eyes against the tears that were beginning to well up again.

"It's not going to do it Merton, I swear, I'm going to beat it."

"I know you will."  He didn't know how convincing he sounded, he still couldn't believe that changing the past was possible, but Merton knew that even if Tommy didn't save his life he would die knowing that Tommy loved him and that was enough.  Of course, if he didn't die that would be good too…

Merton was pacing the lair, glancing every few seconds at his watch or the clock on the wall.  He had been at it for almost an hour while Tommy, sat, silently, watching him.  It wasn't that he didn't understand how Merton felt, he had had his share of times when he thought he was going to die, more than any kid his age had the right to have had, he just wished he didn't have to watch Merton suffer.  He knew it was selfish but he wished the Goth would stop pacing, sit down and act like everything was normal.  Tommy was confident he would be able to beat the Gorath, after all it had been hardly any bother to beat its mate.  He knew that Merton had a right to be anxious and he knew his friend didn't think it was possible for future Tommy to change his past, but he felt a little insulted at Merton's lack of confidence in him.  Not only that, but he wanted to comfort Merton, and it was hard to do when he was pacing the room and biting his nails.

"Will you come and sit down?" he asked for the fifth time, patting the couch next to him.  For the fifth time Merton glanced at him, stopped pacing, then looked away and carried on again.  "Merton, please," he tried, "what good will it do walking up and down all night?  You'll just get yourself tired out."  There was another two hours to go before the time future Tommy had told them the Gorath would attack.

Merton carried on pacing until Tommy, unable to take it any more, got up and stood in front of him, forcing him either to stop or walk around.  Merton chose to stop.  "Please stop," Tommy insisted.

"Why should I?  What's the point spending my last night on Earth sitting around waiting to die?  You don't know what it's like Tommy, I feel like I'm on death row waiting for my execution."

"I do know," Tommy told him, "I've felt the same way before, when Death came for me, and I know that pacing won't help you.  You want to feel like you're doing something useful but there's nothing we can do now.  All there is to do is to wait and be ready at the right time.  Neither of us will be ready if you tire yourself out pacing and distract me by walking past me every few seconds.  Do you know what it's like to spend the better part of an hour looking at your ass walking up and down the room?"  Merton almost laughed, but caught himself.  Tommy sighed, "If you want to burn some energy I know a much better way." He smiled seductively and Merton nodded, feeling a similar smile forming on his own face. He held up his hands in mock defeat and sat down, Tommy joined him and Merton once again felt excitement building up inside him as Tommy leaned towards him.


	10. Chappet 10

As the hands of the clock moved to half past ten, Tommy entered a state of hyper alertness. He reached for the supply of weapons they had prepared earlier, everything from daggers and crossbows to holy water guns, and as much bronze as they could find. Tommy usually preferred hand to hand combat, that was how he had beaten the other Gorath, but this was different, he had something much more important that his own life to protect, he had insisted on weapons, and Merton had of course been more than able to provide them. "You stay here, I'm going to go outside," he whispered, "I might be able to finish it of before it even has the chance to get in."

Merton shook his head, "No, you can't leave. It gets me because you weren't there. We have to stay together."

"Fine, you come out too if you think that's best."

Merton supposed Tommy expected him to stay where he was, but not this time. He didn't know whether he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life, but instead of choosing to cower under his bed, he nodded in agreement and followed Tommy out the door, grabbing a few weapons that Tommy couldn't carry.

Tommy decided that since they were going outside they should head for the park where there was less chance of them being seen by passers by and most of Merton's neighbors. Merton didn't want to go but he had no choice, the Gorath was looking for him and he had to stick with Tommy for protection. That meant that wherever Tommy went, Merton went too. Ordinarily he wouldn't have a problem with that, but he couldn't help the feeling that they were walking to meet the Gorath half way and speeding up his demise. He consoled himself by the fact that they had already changed future Tommy's history by leaving the house together, ready for a fight. If one thing could be changed, so could others.

Tommy tensed as he heard a sound, Merton paused too, straining to hear what his weaker human ears had no chance of detecting. From underneath a bush crawled the Gorath, a seven foot monstrosity covered with flaking skin, patches of brown fur, and drool which seemed to drip continuously from it's snarling mouth, which was filled with seemingly hundreds of razor sharp teeth. With a cry of rage it lunged straight for Merton, who took one look and ran away, positioning himself behind Tommy.

"Leave Merton alone!" yelled Tommy as he wolfed out and ran forward armed with a sharp, deadly looking dagger.

The Gorath easily knocked it out of his hand and headed once again for Merton. Tommy began to fight it in his usual way, punching and kicking in the way that had beaten the other Gorath. As he did, he realized it might have been an idea to tell Lori about what was going to happen, after all, it had taken two of them to beat the Gorath and Merton, who was cowering behind a tree didn't look like he was going to be much use in the fight.

Tommy punched and kicked for all he was worth, not sure whether he was actually fighting harder than he had ever fought before or whether it just seemed that way because he had so much more to lose if he lost. It didn't make any difference however, no matter what he did, the Gorath was slowly making it's way towards Merton's tree and Tommy was slowly but surely retreating. He backed slowly away from the creature, trying not to make it too obvious that he was heading for the pile of weapons. He made to pick up the crossbow, but it wasn't there. He had been sure he had brought it.

Instead he was forced to go for another dagger, this one was slightly longer than the first which was currently lodged into the trunk of a nearby tree, and tipped with bronze. He ran forward and managed to make contact with the Gorath's skin, it howled in pain as the dagger left a long red cut across it's chest, but it didn't seem to slow down. Tommy tried again, but this time the Gorath managed to grab hold of the weapon and turned it on Tommy, who attempted to kick it out of its filthy hand.

Suddenly, with no warning, just as the Gorath seemed ready to swing the blade and slice into Tommy, it gave another howl of pain and dropped the dagger. 

It struggled to stand upright long enough to swing a clawed hand at Tommy's face, but Tommy jumped out of the way just in time and watched in surprise as the creature dropped to the ground. Behind the Gorath's body was an equally surprised looking Merton, shaking and still holding the crossbow that he had fired.

The body of the Gorath began to disintegrate as Tommy rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Merton, "We did it," Merton whispered, "I'm alive."

"You did it." Tommy corrected, holding him even tighter.

Merton struggled to get lose from Tommy's arms, and as soon as he realized what the smaller boy was doing Tommy released him in confusion. Had Merton changed his mind? He looked at him with a hurt look on his face, but Merton was staring at the spot where the Gorath had fallen. A bolt of energy suddenly shot out of the ground and as soon as it did, Merton shoved Tommy away from him, diving himself in the other direction.

The surprised werewolf fell easily to the ground unprepared for the push, then watched at the bolt of energy struck the ground where they had been standing. He got back to his feet and Tommy looked at the Goth with new respect, Merton had defeated the Gorath, Merton had saved them from the energy bolt. And now Merton was laying on the floor.

Tommy rushed over to him and knelt on the floor, fearing the worst. After everything that had happened Merton couldn't still die, he just couldn't. 

"Merton?" said Tommy, feeling the smaller boy's pulse still beating as relief surged through his veins, "are you alright?"

Merton's eyes flickered open and focused on the concerned face looking down at him. "It's really over?" He said, his voice little more than a whisper, "I'm not going to die? We changed the past?" Merton's face wore the smallest hint of a smile though his body was still trembling as Tommy helped him to his feet, it was nice to know that Merton still needed him to do some things. "It's really over," he promised him.

They wrapped an arm around each other and limped happily back to the lair, ready to walk into an exciting and thankfully uncertain future, together.


End file.
